TEHRAN (FNA)- American political analyst John Steppling says that the United States, for forty years, has subsidized, armed, and protected Israel which acts as the iron fist of US interests in the Middle East.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, John Steppling who believes Israel is “an apartheid settler and neo-colonial state founded by Zionists”, says the Israeli regime brags about its crimes against Palestinians without concerns about world opinion because it is protected.

The analyst also added that the Zionist propaganda has been controlling the main stream narrative in Israeli-Palestinian conflict which presents Israel as the victim.

John Steppling is an American political analyst and author who has been interviewed by international news outlets such as Press TV for his comments on American foreign policy.

FNA has conducted an interview with John Steppling about Trump’s relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem Al-Quds and possible motives behind the move and also the recent killings of Palestinian protesters by Israeli army.

Below you will find the full text of the interview.

Q: Delivering on his campaign promise and in defiance of all global warnings, Donald Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds. Many believe that this move by Trump has effectively killed fantasies that Washington is a neutral party in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. How do you think that would play in the current and future developments surrounding the issue?

A: I think few people really have any illusions that Washington is a neutral partner. The US has subsidized, armed, and protected Israel for forty years or perhaps longer. Israel is like the iron fist of US interests in the region. It’s important to understand that Israel does not control the US, but rather that the US controls Israel. Israel could not survive on its own. Its tax base is far too small, and at this point it has too many enemies. When people claim Israel covertly controls the US, that’s just old fashioned anti-Semitic mythology. There is no global Jewish plot, there is only a fascist party running an apartheid settler and neo-colonial state founded by Zionists. And one of the triumphs of Israeli propaganda has been to control the narrative which presents Israel as the victim. But it benefits greatly from the current uptick of anti-Semitism in the liberal West. Israel consciously and repeatedly claims anti-Zionism is synonymous with anti-Semitism, thereby helping create this upswelling of anti-Semitism. The fact is that most people are aware of Israeli crimes and rightly hate Zionism and Israel but then two things happen; first is that anti Zionists are labeled anti-Semitic, and second, many already intolerant or hyper nationalists (you see this in Europe with these new right wing parties) readily buy into old fascist motivated anti-Jewish mythology. And this is something I argue with people all the time. Anti-Semitism helps Israel. It helps the narrative they constantly reiterate. I mean that narrative has confused the western press and public for decades -- and it has rather coercively affected American Jews in some measure too. The old left was made up of many Jews, and they fought with civil rights leaders, they were among the most committed of socialists....many anyway. That is less true because of the massive propaganda you get from the US government, Hollywood, and also from the American far right. Now this narrative is falling apart. The crimes of Israel are too great, and strangely, perhaps, Israel has stopped bothering to even spin their crimes. They almost brag about it, and this is partly the result of the ascendance of the Likud Party. After the Jenin massacre the narrative shifted. And of course this propagandized anti-Semitism runs alongside an equally propagandized Islamophobia.

Now Trump is a strange figure in all this. He has appointed many fanatical Christian evangelicals, so called Dominionists, to his cabinet. Rick Perry, and Mike Pence and Pompeo and Kudlow et al. The Christian right is a big part of his support. That said, he also appointed the same pro Zionist neo-cons that Cheney and Bush and Rumsfeld brought into government. But the point is that Trump is only the voice of his class. The extreme wealthy ruling class that always, finally, makes policy. But the embassy move was designed to create chaos in one sense, and to justify further draconian crackdowns and interventions in the Middle East, and domestically. The anti Iranian rhetoric from Pompeo and Bolton serves to justify any increase they want in defense spending. I mean the money spent on defense is now utterly beyond anything anyone ever imagined possible. And you look at Saudi Arabia, whose only reason for existence, frankly, is as a weapons purchaser. So the assault on Yemen is justified by blaming Iran. The US, I don’t think, wants war...not directly. They DO want to destabilize things and they also fear, I think, Assad in Syria. For he can potentially become a symbol of resistance to western capital. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. What matters is perception. But the Syrian people have been heroic and the US has found this all very frustrating. So the Palestinian situation is one in which they want exactly what Israel wants. They want it to go away and they don't care if that means incremental genocide. For that is what is happening. A bigger stronger more funded Israel serves US interests.

Q: Since the beginning of the protests dubbed as the “Great March of Return”, Israeli forces killed and wounded many Palestinian civilians, including the protesters, members of the press and medical workers. It seems as if the regime in Tel Aviv feels an atmosphere of impunity where it can act beyond all international laws and conventions. Where do you think this feeling of immunity comes from?

A: Well, the impunity is the same impunity US police forces feel when they shoot black men and women in cities across America. The shooting of Palestinians in the recent protests is just shocking. Israel essentially laughs about it. They don't care about world opinion because they are protected. Now....this may come back to haunt them, though. One cannot forever flaunt their own crimes and think the rest of the planet will just accept it. But Zionist hardliners really believe they are smarter than anyone else. And they believe they have the right to do whatever it is they want. It’s going to come to be their Achilles heel, I suspect. That sort of arrogance will always eventually be punished. When? I can't say, but such grotesque sadism and cruelty will eventually cost them. And it will cost the US. The US today is a desperate government. Trump is, in one sense, a reflection of that desperation. He is the unvarnished face of Western capital. Now, I often wonder at some of the comments from Israeli officials. Outrageous things like gentile women are ok to rape (said by a Rabbi for the IDF), or Arabs are beasts to be put down, etc. I wonder if this is just Israel trolling everyone. It becomes another form of distraction. Say crazy things and then walk it back as if the reasonable voice is the real voice of Zionism. And this is how Israelis work in media. And it’s very effective. Clouding the reality is part of what allows Israel to minimize blowback from friends and enemies alike. But Netanyahu is, I think, genuinely, perhaps, unstable. He appears more and more feverish and hysterical. The corruption charges are hanging over his head. And he desperately wants to hold on to power. The whole Greater Israel meme is fact. That was the dream of the first generation of Zionists who came in and terrorized the Palestinian population, and later drove out the British even. They never ever wanted to share the land with any Arabs or Muslims. And they HAVE expanded. But they are also, strategically, taking the long view. The one thing you can count on is the Israeli government will lie. They lie even when they don’t have to. They lie out of habit. And they lie because they mostly hold every non Israeli in contempt.

Q: The US Ambassador to the UN said “no country would act with greater restraint than Israel” as the world was witnessing the rise in the toll of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded by Israeli live fire. How do you evaluate her words?

A: it’s absurd. It’s the exact opposite and I think most of the world knows this.

Q: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, has recently said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh could be mutually beneficial. The Saudi regime once, at least apparently, opposed Israel’s right to exist. What do you think has changed in Riyadh to now come out as an apologist for the Zionist regime and betray the Palestinian cause? How do you think other fellow Arab and Muslim nations think of the Kingdom?

A: This is very interesting. MBS consolidated power as never before in the Kingdom. Who was really behind this? I don't know, but it’s very curios. I think Saudis know that regime change in Riyadh is not out of the question. But suddenly this young crown prince orchestrates this coup and then goes on a spending spree with the UK and US defense industries, as well as picking fights with Qatar and then Yemen. Why? Who is advising him? I don’t know honestly, but it’s very suspicious and at some point the other shoe is going to drop.

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